Solar Electric Power Association names Vermont's Green Mountain Power 'Utility of the Year'

Colchester-based company named 'Utility of the Year'

Oct. 22, 2013

Mary Powell, president and CEO of Colchester-based Green Mountain Power, stands by a solar panel in November, 2011. The utility was recognized nationally this month for its commitment to solar power. / FREE PRESS FILE/MATT SUTKOSKI

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Free Press Staff Writer

Vermont’s largest utility, Green Mountain Power, was honored Tuesday for its “disproportionately large” commitment to photovoltaics by a national solar power advocacy group.

In a news release, Washington, D.C.-based Solar Electric Power Association praised GMP for developing consumer-friendly net-metering options for ratepayers, as well as long-term solar strategies — exemplified by the company’s decision to establish Rutland as New England’s “solar capital.”

GMP recently announced it would increase solar production in Rutland — from an original goal of 6.25 megawatts by 2017, to 10 megawatts by the end of 2015.

The association’s president and CEO, Julia Hamm, in a prepared statement, termed the Rutland proposal “inspirational” and “an exercise in clean energy, economic and community development, all rolled into one.”

GMP was “by far the smallest investor-owned utility considered for the award,” Hamm said.

Throughout its territory, GMP credits customers (at the retail rate, plus 6 cents per kilowatt hour) for their contributions to its grid — a process known as net-metering.

Unlike GMP, several other Vermont utilities have limited net metering, citing an increased shift of maintenance costs to customers without solar arrays.

Mary Powell, GMP’s president and CEO, touts her utility’s approach as a sound, long-term investment: as a hedge against increased transmission costs; and as insurance against costly spot-market purchases during summer spikes in demand.

“While many utilities see solar generation as a threat to their business, we see solar as an opportunity to cost effectively fulfill customer wants and needs and support new jobs and businesses in our communities,” Powell wrote in a prepared statement. “Rather than fear solar, as many utilities appear to do, we embrace it.”

GMP spokeswoman Dotty Schnure said those solar policies arose from a willingness “to think less like a utility, and more like a creative business.”

The utility’s announcement was accompanied by praise from representatives of Vermont’s solar-power business community, including Renewable Energy Vermont, AllEarth Renewables and GroSolar.

The Solar Electric Power Association has more than 1,000 utility and solar industry members. according to its website, and “provides unbiased utility solar market intelligence, up-to-date information about technologies and business models, and peer-to-peer interaction, including hosting national events.”